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Matthias Tess
Also known as "Aztec," Matthias Tess is a mercenary friend of General's that is instrumental in the rebellion against the Overlords. He is a particularly powerful human able to shapeshift and call on the dead for help using ancient Navajo secrets. Biography Early Life Born in March of 2550 on Luna to Maria Tess and her husband Justin Tess. He was the eldest of their children and lived a normal life in the ecosystems of Luna. He lived a normal life there on Luna, and was extremely pleased when his sister, Alexandria Tess, who came to be nicknamed Xandria, was born on 11.01.2560. At fourteen, he was enjoying the first few days of summer vacation before his entrance into high school when the Overlords arrived on 06.15.2564 and everything changed. The Arrival of the Overlords When the Overlords arrived, everyone was forced aboard the massive Worldships and told that their planet would be destroyed. At the age of fourteen, he was forced to watch as his homeworld, Luna, and the planet that it revolved around, Earth, was destroyed and consumed by the Overlords. He, along with everyone else, felt empty watching the planet fade away. This was not the worst thing to happen to him however, the world would follow a year later. Matthias often took care of Xandria, forming a strong bond with her and eventually he became her legal guardian after their parents were arrested by the Enforcers of Order and publicly executed for attempting to start a rebellion. Maria and Justin Tess were two of the Eight Conspirators who attempted to commandeer one of the Worldships on 04.13.2568 and were quickly apprehended. Wanting to discourage further rebellions, Moros and Omega Ninja, the two leading Interpretors, they decided to make an example of the Eight Conspirators. The following day, Moros brought forth the Eight Conspirators and demanded that everyone pay attention. Using his powers as a Daeus, he projected the impromtu press conference into everyone's head via telepathy. Knowing that his parents were arrested and brought before the court, Matthias had a family friend watch over Xandria and went to see his parents in the court, pushing his way to the front row. Determined to discourage any other rebellions from popping up, Moros decided that he was going to publicly torture and execute the prisoners. Matthias watched from the front row. He was also forced by Moros' telepathy to see the image in his head. He watched his parents die twice. He returned to Xandria, hoping she was still too young to remember those images, but knowing that at five, she will remember them. He couldn't believe it. He was determined to raise Xandria to the best of his abilities, despite only being fifteen. On 03.03.2569, the Worldships landed on the newly formed Superplanet and Matthias and Xandria made a home in Esperanza City along with the other humans. Struggling to Survive On the edge of the Lamar Ocean, the humans began building Esperanza City, their new capital, and Matthias and Xandria joined in the building. Matthias attempted to blend in with the rest of the depressed mass, but found that he couldn't quite fit in. During those first few years, crime was rampant. People devolved into animals, struggling and fighting for territory, fighting and stealing. As the remains of the UEG attempted to reestablish control and order on their populace, Matthias found himself one of the many who turned to crime to survive. This would serve to harden him. It wasn't long before Matthias found himself one of the most feared people in Esperanza City, running one of the major gangs in the city. Communication with the Dead As he struggled to survive, Matthias soon came to find that he was hearing voices. These voices finally manifested as Ancestor Ghosts. The souls of Maria Tess, his mother who had taken the form of a doe in the afterlife, and Justin Tess, his father who had taken the form of a wolf, as well as the Tess Patriarch who took the form of an eagle, all appeared before him to try to guide him. However, his rejection of their spiritual guidance forced them to become angry. Their vengeful spirits continued to haunt and torment him until they destroyed his leadership with the gang. In his despair, he allowed himself to be open to their guidance, but the vengeful spirit of Justin Tess possessed him and Matthias was not prepared for it. Matthias experienced his first shapeshifting transformation as he became a horrible monster similar to a Werewolf. His id unrestricted now in his new form, he hunted down every member of his old gang and attacked them but did not kill them. He continued to hunt his old gang down until he returned home and in his lupine rage, attacked Xandria, then only 11. After almost killing her, he finally managed to regain control of himself and force the spirits from his body, but he did not know that he had created monsters out of his old gang. After rushing Xandria to the hospital, she manages to repress the incident. A few months went by and Matthias had no idea about what his old gang members became or that they were systematically being hunted down. It wasn't long before someone traced the Werewolves to their source. Hunted down by Ares (Human), Matthias Tess was forced to fight for his life, running into hiding, leaving Xandria in Esperanza City with friends. Ares continued to hunt him down across the continent and eventually caught up with him. Realizing that he was completely unaware of what he had done and after he found out was totally repentant, Ares asked him to join his organization which was devoted to hunting monsters and making this world filled with chaos a bit less chaotic. Order of Orion On 06.19.2571, Matthias Tess joined the Order of Orion, a mercenary organization that worked to cleanse the planet of monsters and ghosts. Most ghosts were destroyed when the Overlords destroyed the planets in the Oblivion Event, but the monsters such as Vampires and Werewolves were able to hide aboard the Worldships and pretend to be normal beings. Ares, who was once General's assistant, is now the head of the Order of Orion and after asking Matthias to join their organization to get a better hold on his abilities as well as hunt other monsters, gives him the call sign of, "Aztec." Ares introduces Aztec to the other members of the Order and over time he comes to master his abilities of shapeshifting and ghost summoning. He continues to be scared of allowing the ghosts to possess him however and attempts to be human as much as he can be. Over time, he rises the ranks of the Order, becoming one of their best hunters, achieving "Abaddon" Rank, which means that he is the destroyer of monsters. In 2574, he is trained personally by Ares in recognizing Reality Distortion Fields so that he can go on the hunt of the century: capturing General. Capture of General The King of All Monsters, General, has been ordered to be captured by the Overlords with a heavy bounty on his head. The Order is determined to capture him and they begin sending members into the RDF Arena that he has surrounded himself in to hide. They have not returned. Ares teaches Aztec how to recognize RDF fields and after searching far and wide, Aztec finally comes across the tear in space that General is hiding in. He encounters General within the RDF Arena, shaped however General would like. He manages to defeat General, who changes the Arena, but again is defeated by Aztec. This game continues for some time until eventually, Aztec forces General out of the Arena and knocks him unconscious, delivering him to the Overlords to be processed into the Bastion Prison. Joining the Rebellion As Aztec returns to his old life, he finds that General won't leave him alone. General wanted to be captured; for reasons that only General can make sense of. He continues to haunt him in his dreams, until eventually, Aztec discovers that General has escaped from the Bastion after it is attacked by the Rebellion. General seeks out Aztec and forces him to come along with him to the rebellion hide out in Phoenix City. Aztec smiles, seeing dollar signs, knowing that the Overlords will eventually put out another bounty on him, so he follows him happily, knowing he could beat him again and return him to the Overlords. It is here that he discovers that Xandria is already here and is a member of the rebellion. Realizing that his sister, who he has sworn that he would protect her, is this close to General... thus being in permanent danger, Aztec decides that he can't leave. He acknowledges that his sister is the most important thing in his life and he won't do anything to endanger her. He soon establishes a relationship with the leader of the rebellion, Draconus 'Vadam, who after learning that he defeated General multiple times, asks him to be the chief of security in their main bases. He proves to be very instrumental in the attack against the city, helping to evacuate many of the civilians to the secondary base known as The Slab, which is one of the largest remaining sections of the Forerunner fortress worlds known as the Halo Array. He refuses to be onboard the Nascent Ascension during the time that Moros and his Nyx Armada are onboard and both he and Xandria leave the main base to live on the Slab. Possession Not even a day into his new job, his strength was tested during the Long Day Event. On the Slab, numerous murders were occuring that saw the victims torn to shreds or exsanguinated. Draconus and Aztec put themselves at the forefront of the case, with Aztec following the trail of information using the skills he learned hunting monsters during his time with the Order of Orion. He guessed that it was either an extremely hungry Vampire or one of their horrible cousins. Eventually, Aztec and Draconus came face to face with the culprit: a monster even they could not name. The Creature that was the cause of the murders then took possession of Aztec, calling forth all of the Ancestor Ghosts to possess him as well. Aztec's transformation was brutal and hellish as he became the same Alpha Werewolf that attacked and destroyed his old gang, except this time, under the complete control of the Creature. After corrupting and transforming many people on the Slab to Werewolves, eventually, Xandria managed to use her power to cause him to revert back to being a human as Draconus broke the Creature's hold on Aztec. Not long after this, Draconus and the rebellion were forced to retreat from the Slab. Shards of Hatred Trying to recover from the injuries sustained during the battle on the Slab, Aztec continued to have dreams about the Creature. He began to see the monster in his head and knew that it wanted him back as its servant. The Creature almost seemed to have a telepathic connection to him and began telling him things, showing him things. It was not long before Aztec got an image that the Creature had infiltrated the UNSC Infinity and was attempting to possess Catherine Halsey, who was captured during the battle at the Slab. Using the information given to him by Aztec, Draconus was able to rescue Halsey, but in doing so allowed the Creature to attack Aztec, forcing him to become transformed back into the Werewolf. Xandria was yet again able to force him to revert back to his original form and Draconus was able to force the Creature to retreat. Determined not to give the Creature any more abilities to interact with his soul, Aztec shut off his connection to the Ancestor Ghosts, attempting to stay as human as possible. Realizing that he would now be extremely vulnerable, he opened the cabinets and donned his old Order of Orion armor. He found a number of messages from the Order, the last one from Ares himself calling to ask for help. Return to the Order A month prior, the Order of Orion stopped working for the Overlords, finally accepting that the Overlords were monsters just like the ones they were hiring the Order to hunt down. Ares ordered that all contracts stop and that they stockpile monsters instead of destroying them. All of the bases of the Order became huge prisons. The Overlords were not keen on this lack of communication and logically came to the conclusion that they are betraying them and ordered their Enforcers of Order to destroy the bases of the Order of Orion. Realizing that he has to help his old organization, Aztec organizes a team of Xandria, Tanya Rivers and Genesis and under the orders of Draconus go to find the Order and get them to join the rebellion officially under Draconus' flag. After an argument about how to get there, they arrive in Seekers, advanced Forerunner armor suits that act as spaceships. What they find is a deserted facility, only occupied by Parselonians and Vogan soldiers. They soon come to realize that something is off - monsters are roaming the mountain. After determining that the Order of Orion is not there, Aztec orders that the entire mountain be collapsed to prevent the monsters that were released as a failsafe measure against the Overlords from spilling out into the nearby city. Reunion with the Order Determined to find the Order who probably stayed close by, Aztec orders his group to infiltrate the nearby city and find any information they can. Before long he begins noticing the symbols that once defined his order, known as Solomon's Cages or Devil's Traps. He approaches one of the shops that has this symbol and uses his abilities to prevent a robbery, forcing the merchant to offer his services for free, directing them towards a massive shop in the center of town. The shop is owned by a Trul merchant known as Mau'ka, who is using the destruction of the mountain above to scam the citizens of the city into buying his supernatural merchandise. Aztec approaches and manages to convince him to divuldge information about the Order, which he used to sell to, by selling him one of Genesis' prized revolvers. Almost immediately after trading him the revolver, Mau'ka calls the Order, letting them know that Aztec is there and just made a transaction with him, having remembered him from a prior time that Aztec came to his store years before before Mau'ka became rich. A high ranking member of the Order arrives and strangely almost everyone there knows her: Bianca Romanov. Codenamed "Kodiak" due to her Amazonian/bear-like appearance, the RDF clears over Genesis and Tanya River's heads, reminding them that they both worked with Kodiak before under the UNSC as Spartan-IV's. Kodiak brings Aztec and his team into the sewers where they hook into the teleporter system of the city and move over to the Fallout System Compound, a series of intricately carved trenches that serves as the main base of the Order of Orion. It is here that Aztec and Ares have their true reunion. Aztec manages to convince Ares to join the rebellion and contacts Draconus, alerting him to the events, asking him to come to the Fallout Compound. Personality Aztec is a damaged individual who has suffered severely at the hands of the Overlords. He is not driven by revenge against them, but is driven by a need to keep the remainder of his family alive. He would do anything to protect Xandria, going so far as to kill for her. If given the opportunity, he would kill Moros (Nyx) without a second thought, but acknowledges that he is far outclassed and outgunned to do it. He even had the ability to do it, being inches from Moros when the Nyx came onboard the Nascent Ascension, but his intelligence told him he wouldn't win that fight. Aztec is definitely the over-bearing parental archetype. He is so scared of Xandria getting hurt that he barely will let her out of his sight. He only tolerates Tanya Rivers and John-117 taking care of her. He certainly doesn't like Rose at all given her nihilistic propensity and disposition, but respects John-117 for everything he did for humanity during the wars. He is certainly not the strong-silent type, he is very outspoken about his beliefs and is devoted to them. His loyalty is probably his greatest strength and his greatest flaw. However, his disrespect of authority is evident - if he disagrees with the command of one of his superiors, he wouldn't hesitate to completely go around that order, as evidenced when Moros moved onboard the Nascent. He disregarded the order of Draconus to remain onboard the ship. This is also evidenced by his continued disregard for medical personnel after his battles with The Creature in which he continues to get out of bed to try to assist Draconus in hunting it, as well as continue his job. He is haunted by images of his past, of memories of seeing his parents die, of memories of almost killing his own sister. He cannot sleep due to these memories, often pacing and patrolling places that don't need it, just so that he would have an excuse not to sleep. He is a tortured soul that is quick to snap a judgment on a situation or on someone. He does not have much of a sense of humor, which makes him rather dull to most people, but an utter exhiliration to General, who delights in breaking people. This is why General continues to haunt him - he finds his lack of a sense of humor utterly hysterical. Aztec has a very nihilistic view of the world himself. He is atheistic, believing that no just God could allow such atrocities. He has a skewed view of the law, believing that survival is the key to law. If it breaks your ability to survive, no law is gold. Theft, murder, anything is within limits when survival is on the line. Appearance Standing just over six feet tall at 6'2", Aztec blends in with much of the crowd, which certainly helped in his criminal years, as well as being a hunter. He has a square jaw with a large diamond-shaped face. He is not as muscled as some of the Spartans, but certainly could go toe-to-toe with many of the UNSC Marines and win the fight. He has pale hazel eyes and usually tries to keep his brown hair clipped close to his head like a soldier. He trims his facial hair almost twice a day to make sure that he is smooth. "Cleanliness is close to Godliness" definitely holds true in his book. He has a normal human wardrobe, preferring to wear dark colors to help him blend with his environment. He does have a modified ODST Armor that he uses on high level missions from the Order that is completely black. He does have a particular affinity for cowboy boots, but that could just be his Navajo roots coming out. Relationships with Others 'Xandria Tess Alexandria Tess is his sister. They are separated by ten years and Aztec feels completely responsible for her following his parent's death. In 2571, he accidentally assaulted her as a Werewolf, almost killing her, and that has caused him to be more protective of her. He is completely over-bearing, but Xandria has long accepted this as a permanent trait of her brother. Draconus 'Vadam Draconus is one of his closest friends in 2575. He respects Draconus an immense amount given the short time they have known each other. They share many traits that make them very similar, such as the complete lack of a sense of humor, both having horrible childhoods, and both being very protective of the people they love. He feels like he owes Draconus a life-debt now because he saved him from The Creature. Ares Ares is another man that saved Aztec's life. Where there was only a criminal, a rat struggling to survive, Ares gave him hope and gave him a purpose in life. Aztec will always be thankful for that. The friendship between these two goes extremely deep. Rose Rivers Tanya "Rose" Rivers is the best friend of his sister, and her current guardian after she ran away from home. Aztec respects Rose for taking care of her, but he does not like her. He sees all the demons that she is trying so hard to hide and thinks that Rose is a bad influence for his sister. Ancestor Ghosts The three Ancestor Guides that appear often to help Aztec, the wolf-like ghost of Justin Tess, the doe-like ghost of Maria Tess, and the eagle-like ghost of the Tess Patriarch. Until recently, Aztec had a good relationship with them, but after being possessed twice by the Creature, he couldn't risk exposure any longer and cut off his ties to the Spirit World. Others Aztec tries very hard to not make any relationships with people and has few friends as a result. He is all work and no play. He has had very few relationships with females, almost all of them short and ending badly. He is ever vigilant, protecting his sister from any and all threats, even the ones that are her friends. Trivia *While not actually Aztec, the name came from Ares who saw the bloodlust and rage in his eyes and gave him the codename after the ancient Aztec people from the North American Country of Mexico on Earth. The Aztecs were known to ritualistically slaughter and sacrifice, showing unprecedented bloodlust.